McGuffin Mess
by xAikoChan
Summary: Mikan finds herself plunged in a real-life spy game with Natsume- just because she grabbed the last toy McGuffin off the shelf.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone :)**

**This is my first fanfic in a while, I forgot my email AND password for my other account. So, yeah.**

**(*Note – Time set is like , when Mikan & Natsume are in their twenties. Working & stuff ! )**

**Be nice, yeah? Inspiration from Ri-chan. Daisuki :D**

**I DON NOT OWN NOTHING , sadly.**

**Major OOC-ness, specially Hotaru. Hehee ~**

**This chapter is only an intro, which is why it's kinda short ;P**

**ENJOY !**

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Mikan Sakura pushed her was through the crowded old toy store, fed up with Christmas shopping, Christmas carols, Christmas in general, and toy stores in particular. Especially this toy store. For the worst one in town, it had an awful lot of people in it.

_Probably on Christmas Eve_, she thought, and stopped a harried looking teenager wearing an apron and a name tag, accidentally smacking him with her lone shopping bag as she caught his arm. '

"Oh. Sorry. Listen, I need a Major McGuffin."

The kid pulled his arm away. "You and everybody else, lady."

"Just tell me where they are," Mikan said, not caring she was being dissed by someone who probably couldn't drive yet. Anything to get a homicidal doll that spit toxic waste.

"When we had them, they were in the back, row four, to the right. But those things have been gone since before Thanksgiving." The kid shrugged. "You shoulda tried eBay."

"And I would've, if I hadn't just found out I needed it today," Mikan said with savage cheerfulness. "So row four, to the right? Thank you."

She threaded her way back through the crowd heading for the back of the store. Above her, Madonna cooed "Santa Baby," the ancient store speakers making the carol to sex and greed sound a little tinny. Whatever had happened to "Little Drummer Boy"?

The crowd thinned out as she got to the back of the store. Halfway down the last section of the fourth row, she found the dusty, splintered wood shelf marked with a card that said: Major McGuffin, the tought One Two. It was, ofcourse, empty.

"Damn," she said, and turned to look at the shelf next to it, hoping a careless stock boy might have-

Six feet two of broad-shouldered, dark-haired grave disappointment stood there, looking as startled as she was, and her treacherous heart lurched sideways at the sight.

"Uh, Merry Christmas ?" Natsume Hyuuga said, clearly wishing he were somewhere else.

_Yes, this makes my evening._

"Mikan?"

"I don't talk to strangers," Mikan said over her shoulder, and tried to ignore her pounding heart to concentrate on the lack of MacGuffins in front of her. She'd been polite and well behaved with Natsume Hyuuga for three dates and he'd still dumped her, so the hell with him.

"Look I'm sorry I didn't call-"

"I really don't care." Mikan said, keeping her back to him. "In October, I cared. In November, I decided you were thoughtless, inconsiderate loser. And in December I forgot all about you."

Madonna sang, "Been an awful good girl," and Mikan thought, _Like I had a choice_. The least he could have done was seduce her before he abandoned her.

"It's not like I seduced and abandoned you," he said and when she turned around and glared at him, he added, "Okay wrong thing to say. I really am sorry I didn't call. Work got crazy-"

"You're a Chinese herb tea sales person." Mikan said. "How can that get craz-" She shook her head. "Never mind. You didn't like me. You didn't call, I don't care." She turned back to the shelf, concentrationg on not concentrating on Natsume.

"Okay, I'm the rat here-" Natsume said, with gravelly good humour in his voice that had made her weaken and agree to go out the fourth time he'd asked her out eventhough he was a lit professor, eventhough she'd known better.

The silence stretched on and he added, "It was rude and inconsiderate of me."

She though, _So he has a nice voice, so he's sorry, big deal_, and tried hard to ignore him, and then he said, "Come on. It's Christmas. Peace on earth. Goodwill to men. I'm a man."

_You certainly are_, her Id said.

_We've been through this_, she told her baser self. _He's no good. We don't like him. He's bad for us._

"Okay, so you've forgotten I exist. That means we can start over." He came around her and stuck his hand out. "Hi. I'm Natsume Hyuuga and I-"

"No." Mikan said, annoyed with herself for wanting to take his hand. "We can't start over, you were a grave disappointment. Grave disappointments do not get do-overs."

She turned away and put her mind back on the McGuffin. Okay, this was the worse toy store in the city, so the inventory had to be lousy. If somebody had shoved a box to one side. . .

She dropped her shopping bag and began methodically take down the faded boxes of toys to the right of the empty McGuffin shelf. They were ancient but evidently not valuable Star Wars figures, a blast from her past. There was a little Han Solo in Natsume, she thought. Maybe that was why she'd fallen for him. It wasn't him at all it was George Lucas and that damn light saber. She put Natsume out of her thoughts and kept taking down boxes until she reached the last layer. None of them looked like McGuffins.

"Mikan, look, i-"

"Go _away_; I have problems."

"You have _Star Wars_ problems?"

"No. I have Major McGuffin problems. If you know where to get one, I will talk to you. Otherwise, leave."

"I can't." Natsume smiled at her sheepishly. "I'm looking for a McGuffin, too."

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**THANK YOU FOR READING MY CRAP :D**

**I hope you guys liked it though. I put alot of effort into it T__T**

**So leave nice, pretty reviews okay? :)**

**-Aiko**


	2. Chapter 2

**Ohayo minna-san :)**

**I do not own anything here. Other than the plot.**

**I hope you guys like my story ! Inspiration from Ri-chan. Daisuki ! :D**

**And and, um. Yeah . ENJOY !**

_You have got to be kidding me_, she thought to herself, irritated. "I figured you more for the Barbie type." Mikan started to stack the boxes back on the shelf again.

"No, no, I'm a collector." Natsume picked up a box and put it back for her, and she thought about telling him to go away again, but she really didn't want to put all these boxes back by herself.

"It's important to get the toys in mint in the box." He held up a box with a crumpled corner. "See, this is no good."

"Thank you for sharing." Mikan put another box back. When he continued to help, she decided he could put them back by himself and moved to the dusty boxes to the left of the empty McGuffin shelf. Action figures from Fantastic Four.

The store really did have an inventory problem; those were completely out-of-date. Well, if there wasn't a Mac to the right there would be one to the left. Life could not be so cruel as to send her a Natsume but not a McGuffin.

She began to methodically remove every Fantastic Four figure on the shelf, while Natsume restocked Fantastic Four figures and tried to make small talk about the McGuffin, asking her if she'd bought one there before, if she shopped in the store often, if she knew anybody who bought one there.

She ignored him until she pulled the last box and there was still no McGuffin, and then she took a deep breath. Okay, Plan B. Maybe on the other side of the shelf. . .

"Mikan, I-"

"Unless you have a McGuffin, I'm not interested."

"Okay," he said. "I understand." He put the last of the Star Wars boxes back and smiled at the shelf, irrationally depressed that he was going. She _wanted_ him to go, that was the _point_-

She heard him say, "Hello, Kokoro," and then somebody else said, "Her, I heard you guys were talking about McGuffins. You found any?" and Mikan looked up to see the kind of guy who looked like he'd say 'dude' a lot: late teens, clueless face, muscles shoulders, loose toffee coloured hair.

The only non-surfer thing about him was the pink confetti-printed box sticking out of the top. Both the box and the guy looked vaguely familiar, but Mikan couldn't place either one.

He grinned at her. "Hey, Miss Sakura, you're lookin' good."

Mikan looked closer but still didn't recognize him.

"You don't recognize me." His grin widened with forgiveness, and he added, "I sure remember you," and Mikan thought, _what a shame he's too young for me. I could seduce him in front of Natsume_.

"I'm Kokoro Yome, you can call me Koko, your fathers research assistant last year. You helped me find that Ming Dynasty book your father wanted. You know, in the library."

"Good place to find books." Natsume said, his voice considerably cooler than it had been when he had talked to her.

"Right. Koko. Got it." Trudy said, placing him now as the guy her father had called the most inept RA of his career.

Kokoro smiled at her. "I sure have missed your dad since he went to Korea."

"Oh, we all have." Mikan lied, and stuck out her hand. "Call me Mikan."

She looked at Natsume. "You can call me Miss Sakura." She said to him. "No, wait, you weren't going to call me at all. Weren't you leaving?" Koko held on to her hand, so she took it back.

He nodded to Natsume. "So you and Professor Herb Tea found a McGuffin?"

"Professor Her Tea and I are not together." Mikan picked up her shopping bag and moved around the both of them. "And I haven't found a McGuffin yet. But I will."

Koko followed her around to the next row and the other side of the empty McGuffin shelf. "Well, I'm not sorry you're not with Professor Herb Tea, Mikan," he said when they'd rounded the corner. "I never got the chance to know you better. Your dad worked pretty hard. But the best part about being his RA was always seeing you."

"Thank you," Okay, for some reason this infant was trying to pick her up. Whatever, she had problems, so later for him.

Mikan zeroed in on the boxes that backed up against the McGuffin shelf. Dolls this time, with big heads and miniskirts and too much eye makeup. Too bad Youichi wasn't a girl; she could've loaded him up with poptarts. But no, he had to be a violent, antisocial 'Guffin.

"Men." She put her shopping bag down again and began to take the dolls off the shelf. Over the tops she could see Natsume restocking Fantastic Fours. He shook his head at her, probably disgusted that she was flirting with an infant like Koko, and she turned away to see the infant looking at her, confused.

"Men?" he said. "Did I say something wrong?"

"What?" Mikan said, stacking up doll boxes on the floor. "Oh, not you. My nephew, Youichi. He's five and he wants a Major McGuffin doll, and of course, I can't find one."

"Yeah, you had to shop early for those." Koko said, sounding sympathetic. "So I guess you haven't seen one here?"

"I would have shopped early if I'd known his father wasn't going to get him one," Mikan said, exasperated. "But since his father told me he was going to, I didn't."

"So what are you doing over here?" Koko frowned, looking at the dolls she was taking down.

"I'm looking for a misplaced McGuffin. This place is pretty sloppy, and I'm hoping there's one stuck at thye back of the shelf someplace because if there isn't I'm screwed." She took down the last box and faced another empty shelf.

On the other side, Natsume looked serious as he put back the last of the Fantastic Four boxes. He couldn't possibly care that she was talking to Koko. Unless he was one of those guys who didn't want something until somebody else wanted it. He hadn't seemed like that kind of guy.

He'd seemed pretty much perfect: smart, funny, kind, thoughtful . . .

_Ignore him_, she told herself, she started to put the boxes back. _Okay, suppose I was hiding a toy so I could come back later, maybe when I had more money. I found the last McGuffin, but I didn't have enough to pay for it, so I needed to hide it. The first thing I'm gonna do is go to another row of shelves so nobody who wanted one would trip over it accidentally._

Mikan ignored him to smile at Koko and then picked up her bad to go look in a different aisle.

"So no MacGuffin," Reese said. "Really sorry about that."

"Yep," Mikan said, and then stopped when she caught another glimpse of the pink confetti-patterned box sticking out of Reese's shopping bag. "What is that?"

He looked down. "This? It's some nail polish doll my niece wanted."

_Nail polish doll? _Mikan reached down and pulled the box out of the bag. "Oh, my God," she said, looking closer at the Pepto-Bismol pink box that said: _Twinkletoes!_ In silver sparkly paint. "This doll is twenty -five years old!"

"I think it's a reissue," Koko said, sounding confused as he tried to take it back.

"Is the box mint?" Natsume said, and Koko frowned at him and tugged on the box again.

"A reissue." Mikan held on to the box. Her sister would have had a heart attack is she knew they were making these again. She brought the box closer. Yep, it was the same pouting blonde bimbo, Princess Twinkletoes and there at the bottom next to Twinkletoes' fat little feet was the same plastic manicure set with three heart-shaped bottles of polish- pink, silver, and purple- that had made Airi's six-year-old heart beat faster, the Hot Toy of some 10 years ago. "Where did you get this?"

Koko yanked the box from her hands and nodded to the next row. "Over there," he said sliding the box back into his bag. "There are a lot of them."

Mikan rounded the corner to see the Twinkletoes shelf, crammed full of hot pink boxes. Evidently lightning did not strike twice; Twink was clearly no the Hot Toy of 2009. _You get a little age on you and nobody wants you_, Mikan thought. Well, unless you were Barbie. That bitch lasted forever. Mikan picked up a Twinkletoes box.

Koko came to stand beside her. "Your nephew wants a doll?"

"This is the doll my little sister never got," Mikan said. _And she could use some payback this Christmas_.

"How old's your little sister?"

"Nineteen."

"Oh."

Mikan looked up at the confusion in his voice. "Airi was supposed to get this the Christmas she was six, but my dad forgot. He told her it fell of Santa's sleigh."

"Uh huh," Koko said, probably trying to picture her academic father talking about Santa.

"That was his line for whenever he forgot the Christmas presents," Mikan said, thinking of Youichi, waiting at home for his MacGuffin. If she didn't find a MacGuffin, would she be reduced to the "fell of the sleigh" line?

Never.

"Did he forget a lot?" Koko said, sympathy in his voice.

"Pretty much every year. You know professors. Absentminded." Mikan shook her head.

"Never mind. I'm rambling. My mind's on my sister and my nephew."

"Well, hey, it's Christmas. That's where your mind is supposed to be. Family." Koko smiled at her gripping his own Twinkletoes box. "Listen. I have to get going, but maybe we can have coffee sometime?"

"Sure." Mikan smiled back at him automatically, her mind on the Twinkletoes. Would a gift that was a couple of decades late distract Airi from her breakup?"

Hell, it couldn't hurt.

Koko walked away, and she looked closer at the Twinkletoes box in her hands. It had the crumpled corner and she remembered what Natsume had said. The box should be mint. She put her shopping bag downand began to take the Twinkletoes boxes off the shelf. Airi was going to get a perfect Twinkletoes, pink box and all.

Natsume came around the end of the row and sighed when he saw the boxes on the floor.

"Go away." Mikan took down the next pink box.

"Listen, is there anything I can do to make you not so mad?"

"Mad? I'm not mad." Mikan studied the Twinkletoes box. Smudge on the top. She dropped it on Natsume's foot. "Why would I be mad?

He picked it up. "That's what I asked."

She pulled another Twinkletoes box off the shelf and shoved it at him. "Okay, here's why I'm mad. I didn't want to go out with you because you were a professor, and I grew up with a professor, and it was no fun because you get forgotten a lot because your dad is thinking about something that happened four millennia ago, so I said no, four times I said no, but you kept at me and I weakened and went out and _I really liked you, you bastard_, and you were smart and you were funny" –she shoved another box at him- "and I thought, gee, maybe this will work out, maybe this professor who wont forget, but evidently it was just the thrill of the chase or something because you dropped me" –she threw the next box at him and he caught it, balancing it with the first two-" and I never knew why since you never botheres to tell me; you just fell right off the sleigh-"

"Sleigh?" Natsume said.

". . . so I'm a little upset with you."

Natsume sighed. "Look, you changed."

"Ofcourse I changed," Mikan snapped. "It's been three months. I've grown. I've matured. I'm in a new and better place now. A place without you. Go away." She went back to the Twinkletoes s helf, pulling boxes off at random and dropping them on the floor, appalled to the realize that she was close to tears.

"No, you changed from the library," Natsume was saying. "You were funny in the library. You talked fast and made weird jokes and surprised me. I liked that. And then I took you out and you, well, you kind of went dull on me."

Mikan stopped dropping boxes on the floor. "You took me to a faculty party. If I hadn't gone dull on you, you'd have lost points. You'd have been Natsume who brought that weird-ass librarian to the October gin-fling. I was helping you."

"Did I ask for help?" Nolan asked, exasperated.

"And you took me to dinner at the department head's house. You wanted me weird there?"

"I couldn't get out of that," Naysume said.

"And then the Chinese film festival." Mikan dropped another box to the floor. "I thought I was going to see Crouching Tiger 2, but it was some horrible depressing thing about people weeping in dark rooms."

"It was?" Natsume said, confused.

"Not that you'd know, since you _left right after it started_," Mikan snarled, flinging a box at him. "You got a call and walked out of the theater and I was left with people weeping in Chinese-"

She stopped to stare at the shelf, the next box in her hand, her heart thudding harder than it had when she'd first seen Natsume.

There was a camouflage- coloured box ah the back.

She dropped the Twinkletoes box and pulled out the camo and read the label. : Major McGuffin the Tough One! "Oh, my God!" Mikan held on to it with both hands, almost shaking.

**WOO! CHAPTER TWO DONE :D**

**My fingers hurt. I typed alot.**

**I think I'm not gonna add Hotaru, cause it'd be really weird to imagine her all "nicey-nice"**

**Leave a review, and make my day please? **

**-Aiko :)**


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